Chris Perez keeps throwing heat -- on and off the mound

View full sizeChuck Crow, The Plain DealerChris Perez, in the bullpen at Progressive Field, on the mindset of a closer: "The hardest thing about closing is blowing games. Anybody can go out there and pitch and get outs and say he's great. Itâs when you blow one. [Coming back] that next day. That's the difference."

The Chris Perez file

Nickname: Pure Rage

Age: 27

Height/weight: 6-4, 230

Residence: Tampa, Fla.

Personal: Married to Melanie. They have a son, Maxwell, 21 months old, and are expecting the birth of a daughter in September

College: University of Miami; majored in criminology

Professional: Selected in supplemental first round of 2006 draft (42nd overall) by St. Louis; acquired by Indians along with minor league pitcher Jess Todd in mid-2009 trade with Cardinals for Mark DeRosa

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In baseball, as in business, the closer is money. The master salesman called in late to seal the deal.

The role is a double-knot of ecstasy and unbelievable pressure. Which means just because a pitcher can ride through innings one through eight doesn't mean he's necessarily cut out for the job.

Around the clubhouse, they refer to something called "a closer's mentality." You either have it or you don't.

"It's a different game, man, when you're the last guy out there," said Indians pitching coach Scott Radinsky. "You sit out there for the course of the whole game, and you're watching the game evolve, and you know that you're the guy. And when you get the call, it's win or lose on you."

For the Indians, since 2010, the last guy out there has been Chris Perez.

He's handled the game's ultimate mind test as well as any, and better than most. The reward, which comes with a $50,000 bonus in his contract, is a second straight invitation to baseball's All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium, joining shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera -- also making a repeat appearance -- as the team's representatives.

It's a tribute Perez considers even sweeter than the first.

"It sounds a little pompous," he said, "but you can put together a good two or three months and be an All-Star once. But to do it twice, to me at least -- especially being elected by the players -- it's a great honor. ... It's a good validation, for sure."

Perez, who just turned 27, stands among the league leaders in saves, having blown just one in 25 chances so far. With Perez and reliever Vinnie Pestano finishing off games -- usually Pestano in the eighth, then handing off to Perez for the ninth -- the Indians are 36-1 when leading after seven innings.

It's been quite a run. Behind the numbers, it's also been quite a tumultuous first half for the shaggy, 6-4, 230-pound right-hander from Tampa by way of the University of Miami and the St. Louis Cardinals.

First, there was the strained left oblique (the muscles that make up the coveted six-pack) in spring training. Then, on Opening Day, Perez wasted starter Justin Masterson's two-hitter and 4-1 lead, blowing the save as the Indians eventually lost to Toronto in 16 innings. After the game, he apologized to both Masterson and manager Manny Acta and stuck around after the game to face the media until every question was answered.

"I was always told, especially in school when I went to Miami, they're going to get their story from somewhere," he said, explaining why he didn't just bail. "If you don't want someone speaking for you or have a reporter interpret it, it's better for you to stand up there and take it."

In late May, with the Indians in first place in the AL Central, Perez stood before reporters again and criticized fans for not showing up. At the All-Star break, the team remains last among the 30 teams in attendance.

"I just said pretty much, 'Screw it. If they hate me, I don't care, I'm going to still do my job. My teammates like me, that's the only thing that matters really.' That was it. I put it all out there."

Many fans were upset. But when Perez dashed from the bullpen for his next appearance, he was greeted with a standing ovation.

"It felt good," he said in an interview before a recent game.

He's angered opponents for being overly dramatic, whether it be a primal scream, a fist pump or a pro wrestler's you-can't-see-me gesture. He's even punctuated a save by vomiting on all fours near the mound. Along the way, he has compiled a streak of 24 straight saves, the second longest in franchise history for one season. (Jose Mesa, the last Tribe reliever to make the All-Star Game two straight seasons, saved 38 in a row in 1995.)

"I don't know him too well," Maddon said, "but I bet he's got two things working for him. I bet he's accountable, and I bet, again not knowing him, when he messes one up, that he's the same cat the next day."

The game's old hands all know pitchers who were better than fine middle-inning relievers, or "set-up" men who successfully got a team through late innings before handing off to the closer. But for some reason they couldn't make that step to be one themselves. In recent history, former Indians relievers Paul Shuey and Rafael Betancourt found the role a bad fit.

The closer's mentality. In the wrong hands, it can mess you up.

"I used to pitch in fear," said Dennis Eckersley, one of those rare instances of a starter reinventing himself as a Hall of Fame closer later in his career.

"A lot of guys talk about being fearless. For me, it was just the opposite. Every time I went out there, I was afraid to fail, kind of," said Eckersley, who was drafted by and started for the Indians from 1975-77. "And then they talk about turning the page if you have a bad outing. I had a hard time turning the page. [They say] you have to have a short memory. That's a bunch of [expletive]. You want to get the ball as soon as possible so you can make up for it. But if you have another bad game, it's going to be twice as bad."

Eckersley may have no idea, but the little voice inside Perez's head is his. As a 22-year-old rookie with St. Louis in 2008, Perez, who had blown a save the night before, was in the outfield shagging flies as he still likes to do before games. Tony LaRussa, the Cardinals' manager who had also managed Eckersley in Oakland, asked if Perez was still thinking about the previous game.

"Not really," Perez told him.

"He goes, 'Not really?' I said, 'Yeah, I guess a little bit,'" Perez admitted. "He goes, 'Eck never forgot about a save, but that was a good thing because it drove him. He never wanted to feel like that again. That's what you need to do.'"

Indians team psychologist Dr. Charlie Maher, not speaking specifically about Perez but from his 25 years in major league baseball, said the position requires a special resiliency and focus.

"It's almost like a paradox," he said. "They have to be calm on the inside so they can be aggressive and assertive on the outside."

When the Indians acquired Perez and minor-league pitcher Jess Todd from the Cardinals in mid-2009 for Mark DeRosa, Perez was used as a set-up man for closer Kerry Wood. But since 2010, Perez, father of a 21-month-old son with a daughter due in September, has been given the ball with the game on the line. He saved 36 games in 2011, fourth most in the American League, and earned his first All-Star appearance.

Entering 2012, he was already fifth all-time in franchise saves, but should come close to passing Mesa for third place by season's end. He has cut down on home runs (allowing one so far) and walks (just seven in more than 31 innings), a criticism that's followed him since he was drafted.

He's also throwing harder this year, consistently reaching into the mid- to upper 90s -- back to where he was in 2010 before a strained flexor tendon coming out of spring training last year slowed his fastball and stunted his slider all season.

The mental part? No strain there, it seems.

"Some people handle that pressure, some people don't," said Radinsky, the Tribe pitching coach. "Some people thrive on that pressure. ... Whether people like him or respect him or not, one thing you can't take away from him is the fact that he wants the ball every single time we're in that situation."

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